Mar 19, 2011

I'm a scone lover and enjoy playing around with different varieties. Lemon scones have been on my to-do list for quite some time, the added dried fruit was a last minute addition that turned out wonderful.

For perfect scones, be careful not to over-knead the dough and be sure your butter is chilled. Leftovers can be stored in air-tight containers for up to two days. I've tried these using all whole wheat flour but I prefer to use a blend of whole wheat and white. Enjoy!

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Cut in chilled butter with a pastry blender, or you could use 2 knives, until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gently fold in cranberries or cherries. Add buttermilk mixture, stirring just until moist. (dough will be sticky)

Place dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly four times with floured hands. Form dough into an 8-inch circle onto baking sheet, about 3/4" thick. Using a knife, cut dough into 10 wedges (do not cut all the way through). Brush lemon glaze over dough. Bake until golden, about 18-20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Serve warm or room temperature.

If you leave out the dried fruit, the scones are 4 points plus each.

65 comments
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These sound amazing! Do you think it would work with fresh berries, or would the dough be too wet? Cranberries would probably be too tart but I have frozen blackberries from my CSA that are begging for some special treatment.

Hi, Gina - I haven't tried these yet, but just spent a good part of my Sat afternoon going through your entire blog. You have some amazing recipes, and I love that you have photos with everything. I've recently got back on a cooking kick and now have bunches and bunches to try. Thanks so much for all the time and effort you put into this.

Just made these with fresh blueberries instead of cranberries. Had a slight bitter taste - probably from the wheat flour - but still good (and not dry like many scone recipes). If using fresh fruit, fold the fruit as final step instead of before adding liquid.

Your recipe looks delicious! I am anxious to try it! I've had scones at some restaurants/bakeries and they always seem dry. I ran across this recipe years ago from a Food Network Show. While it uses more butter than your recipe does, it has oatmeal in it which seems to give a softer result. These too are wonderful! Could you please analyze this recipe and see what you think could be done to bring down the fat/calorie count. Thank you!

I made these tonight and left out the fruit in favor of poppy seeds (1 Tablespoon). Like a previous commenter said, the scones were very moist, which is fantastic!

Two things:1) Mine didn't turn out as "lemon-y" as I wanted, and I doubled the lemon juice. I might add a little lemon extract next time.

2) I know it's not traditional, but I do like my scones a little sweeter. I might experiment with a Splenda-lemon juice glaze to drizzle over the top after baking, or even add some Splenda to the recipe.

For the person asking for a lighter recipe, the scones I (and my grandma and my mother) have always made are just

2 C SR flour3 Tbs Butter grated1 C milk

Then you mix it all together quickly with the back of a butter knife, turn out onto a heavily floured surface, turn over once to flour both sides, and shape into a square (do not knead) then cut into 12 squares. Brush with milk and bake at 410 (210 celcius) for 8 min. they should rise to almost 2 inches high or you have over-mixed and made them heavy. Serve with jam and cream(or sugar free jam and cool whip)

They are light slightly lower in points (3pp) and have a much lighter consistency than scones with egg/ buttermilk. The flecks of butter help the scone to rise and be flaky and light.

Made these for Easter morning breakfast. Followed the recipe exactly and they were PERFECT!!!! Delish!!! Enjoyed them right out of the oven with a cup of coffee, but were equally as good when cooled! Lived in the UK for a bit and picky about a good scone and THESE are a GOOD scone! LOVE IT! Try these if you are considering it!!!!!!

I've been wanting to make these for the longest time but for some reason the word "scone" freaked me out. Finally made them tonight and I can't wait to share them; they turned out so delicious! Thanks for another fantastic recipe Gina!

These were very good. I was initially concerned about the sweetness and thought about adding more than 1/4 cup of sugar, but you don't need it. The cranberries make this sweet. The other positive is that these come together pretty quickly!

Found this site earlier this year and absolutely LOVE it! I tried this scone recipe and substituted coconut oil for the butter and it was delicious! I make biscuits all the time and never tried scones. I also used fresh cranberries because that's what I had. I upped the sugar to 1/3 cup and it was perfect.

Brinda, You can make scones ahead and freeze them on a cookie sheet, unbaked. then throw them into a freezer bag for whenever you want to bake them. I do it all the time, such a great time saver. You don't even have to thaw them, you might have to bake a little bit longer. Check out my site: www.cookingamidchaos.com

This was a delicious recipe! I mixed tangerine juice and zest with the lemon juice & zest for a blended citrus flavor - turned out very nummy! I've been trying to make scones for several years - they never turn out...until I tried your recipe! Thank you for a great (and easy) recipe!

I am a nursing mom and my baby is lactose intolerant. What could I substitute for the buttermilk? And do you think using a small amount of butter in a recipe for bread would affect him? I am new at this and am unsure about how to do baking without using dairy products. Thanks, Raeval

Hi Gina,First I'd like to tell you that I love your sight and make your recipes all the time. You're awesome!Do you think that I can drop these by large spoonfuls like your blueberry scones? I would assume so, butbd hate to mess these up. Thanks:)

Gina, I have been meaning to make this recipe for some time now and finally got around to it today. It smelled so good coming out of the oven that I could not wait to try them. They taste as good as they smell. Thanks for this and all your wonderful recipes. I've tried a lot of them by now and they are all great.

Hi Gina,The scones are in the oven as I write this. In trying to cut down on fat and sugar I changed it up by making the buttermilk from nonfat milk and lemon vinegar, splenda instead of real sugar, and one Tbsp of applebutter to replace one Tbsp of the butter. Waiting to see if I've destroyed your recipe or made something good. =]Thanks for this web site. It's really helped me lose some poundage!Patti

Wow! The glaze really stands out and compliments the lemon flavors throughout. My fiance and I loved them warm out of the oven! :) I only discovered your site a few weeks back and love what you do with heavy meals that we can all enjoy! :)